Fox: However you vote on the Apache Junction bonds, override, know the facts
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About the Apache junction Unified School District bond and override: $62 million is a lot of money. Our taxes going up is not something we celebrate. The abuse of power, secrecy, rubber-stamp school boards and inept leadership of the past are still fresh on our minds and haunting our thoughts and perceptions of the present.
But we must force ourselves to look at the present realities. What is the situation now and what should we do about it?
I have been on two of the school tours so far. I was one of six people at Desert Vista and I was the only citizen at Four Peaks. I saw for myself the condition of the buildings and can say in all honesty that we are not being sold a “bill of goods.” Yes, there is a State School Facilities Board to which AJUSD can apply for funds (a process horribly underused in the past), but they will not pay for a lot of what’s needed.
I would highly recommend that district citizens go on one or more of the remaining school tours. There they can talk with the principal, the facilities manager and the manager of the bus fleet and see and hear for themselves. Go to one or more of the remaining forums and listen and ask questions.
We cannot be knee-jerk decision makers. The strength of our Republic rests on an informed citizenry. Even though it is so easy to do, we cannot afford to hold the present hostage to a rotten past. The cost may be high and very unfair, but we are where we are and it is incumbent upon us to work to make things better. However you vote, know the facts.
